Doctor who performed deadly FGM to be summoned, hospital to be closed

CAIRO: The prosecution has summoned the doctor who performed female genital mutilation (FGM) on a 17-year-old girl, which resulted in her death, Youm7 reported.

The body of Mayar Mohamed was handed to her family for burial after an autopsy was conducted. Mohamed’s twin sister survived the operation in the same privately-owned hospital in Suez City.

The twins were brought to the hospital by their mother, a nurse, to undergo FGM. Suez Governor Ahmed al-Hayatmi ordered that the hospital be closed.

Health Minister Ahmed Emad al-Din, the National Council for Women, and the National Council for Motherhood and Childhood have slammed the incident.

A number of members of parliament, including MP Mona Rezq submitted requests to Speaker of Parliament Ali Abdel Aal to demand that the authorities investigate the incident and FGM in Egypt in general.Furthermore, Ismailia scholars have rushed to denounce FGM.

Professor Mostafa al-Argawy, former dean of Al-Azhar’s Faculty of Shariah and Law, told Youm7 Monday that “a woman is entitled to enjoy her husband as much as he enjoys her.”

The practice is concentrated in many African states and largely does not exist in most Islamic countries. In Egypt the practice is widespread among Muslims and Christians.

The mother of the deceased girl had attempted to cover up the case, requesting permission for a burial claiming that her daughter died while having adenoids removed from her lower stomach. However, Suez Health Inspector Sedqi Sedhom refused the request after he discovered the girl underwent FGM. The doctor who carried out the operation is reportedly one of the most famous surgeons in Suez.

Some 76 percent of girls undergo female genital mutilation at the hands of licensed doctors, despite its illegality, whereas midwives circumcise only 22 percent, according to a 2015 population health survey issued by the Ministry of Health.

The most common forms of FGM in Egypt are Type I, clitoridectomy, and Type II, excision, which entails the complete or partial removal of the inner labia with or without clitoridectomy and the removal of the outer labia, according to the World Health Organization.

Most cases of death after FGM result from unstoppable bleeding and infections.

Parties involved in a girl’s genital mutilation face a prison term of up to two years or a fine between 1,000 to 5,000 EGP.

Although the law was issued in 2008 per a ruling by Dar al-Iftaa that it is unfounded in Islam, its first application only took place in January 2014, where a doctor who circumcised a 13-year-old girl was sentenced to two years in prison after she died of complications in 2013.

Egypt has the largest number of women who have been subjected to genital cutting in the world, according to a 2013 UNICEF report. A 45 percent-decline among girls age 15-17 is expected over 15 years, according to the 2008 Egyptian Demographic Health Survey (EDHS.)

FGM among girls in the age group 15-17 years old in 2015 marked 61 percent in 2015, declining by 13 percent from 2008, according to a 2015 Demographic Health Survey report.

In 2015, Egypt announced a strategic plan to reduce the FGM rate to 15 percent over five years in coordination with the United Nations Population Fund